Journal & Topics Media Group

Palatine Approves Replacement Fire Truck


View of wreckage after a Palatine fire truck and van collided at Palatine Road and Quentin Road earlier this year. (Patrick Jasionowski/Special to the Journal)

The Palatine Fire Department will buy a new fire truck after a truck held in reserve was wrecked in a recent traffic accident.

As Palatine emergency service vehicles get older, the departments shift them to reserve status for a few years before selling them off. The 2006 Crimson Diamond fire engine was scheduled to be replaced in 2024, but the crash accelerated the process. The village council voted unanimously authorized the purchase on April 18.

The damaged fire engine is a 2006 Crimson Diamond pumper, which, as the name suggests, is primarily designed to pump and spray water at a fire. According to the staff report, before the crash, it had “91,716 miles and 8,172 engine hours” on it.

In an April 18 memo to Village Manager Reid Ottesen, Palatine fire chief Patrick Gratzianna wrote that the fire engine got a call in the morning to head to Inverness in response to a pulled fire alarm. As it went through the intersection of Quentin and Palatine roads, another vehicle struck it on the driver’s side, “causing it to tip, rotate and roll over.” While the firefighters on board only suffered bumps and bruises, the fire truck was totaled.

The fire department previously estimated that, when it was replaced in 2024, the new fire truck would cost $773,229. Gratzianna said he wanted to purchase a replacement, Pierce Enforcer pumper, from MacQuinn Emergency Equipment, an Aurora-based fire tuck dealer.

He wrote that he wanted to buy the replacement engine as soon as possible because the manufacturer expected the cost of materials to increase by the end of April by 7%, or $52,150. Furthermore, it would take around 16-18 months to build it, and, with the fire department one engine short, every month counted.

Gratzianna wrote that he expected the new fire truck to last 18 years — the same useful life as the totaled truck.

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